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What the Hell are you Looking at?

I saw these videos today Must see Videos and it got me thinking of the good old days on the streets. I remember people screaming at us when we blocked traffic on surface streets and even worse language when on the Interstate. We block lanes of traffic not so we can hide behind the fire truck and giggle about how much we love jacking up traffic. We block these lanes for our safety and for that of our patients and fellow emergency workers.

You may have noticed this phenomenon yourself as you slow down to rubber neck a traffic accident, without noticing it, you begin to guide your vehicle gently in the direction you are looking. Then suddenly you have to jerk your wheel in the other direction just before you nearly crash yourself. Feel kinda stupid and embarrassed when that happens I bet.

Well guess what, every year people react too slowly and slam into firefighters, cops, ambulance personnel, road workers and anyone else that has to do their job in traffic. I respect that drivers slow down for these accidents, what I don’t respect is their motive. See we know you aren’t slowing for us, we know you are ghouls, what is that people hope to see?

A dead body, a person tangled in the wreckage, the blood dripping from a car? I don’t know what is in the minds of the ghouls, but I know it isn’t honorable especially when their phone or video camera is trained on the events in front of them. It is truly sick to do this people. My God what if you accidently filmed someone you knew mangled in the twisted metal? What if was your family or friends killed or hurt? Would you still rush home to post it on Youtube or Facebook? Would you still Instagram it or tweet it to your friends and followers?

Who knows you might get some huge traffic on your Youtube channel, it might even go viral if you are lucky. Wow, how cool would that be if you captured some really gruesome images, maybe some guts or something? That would be something to show the kids wouldn’t it.

Seriously people slow down to help us and keep us safe, but put the cameras away please. Isn’t it bad enough that the footage from dash cameras in police cruisers and other emergency responder units end up on the internet? Do you need to contribute to the coarsening of society with another contribution? Government agencies have no choice in the release of their videos, it is a taxpayer funded endeavor and therefore a part of the public record it has to be released if that is requested.

Be a human being and show some respect for the tragedy that has unfortunately happened on your way to work, or church, or a meal. I understand the uncontrollable force that pushes your eyes in that direction, I do, but with training you can learn to drive by without looking, I do it all the time. I don’t look anymore, it is too familiar to me, and that is a part of my past, I had enough in my thirty years to last the rest of my life.

If you need to see gross, the internet is full of it I’m sure just Google it and enjoy. Bet you won’t last long. You know why? Because the human body comes apart very easily, we are fragile creatures trust me I know.

While I’m at it I have another pet peeve about the way drivers respond to any emergency vehicle on the road. If the cop car or tow truck, or fire truck is safely off the main road and not in traffic, stop slowing down and screwing up traffic, okay, drive on.

I just saw it today on the interstate, a semi truck had a flat tire and had pulled off on a scenic overlook. Two State Patrol cruisers with their lights on had stopped to help the trucker. This totally mundane event had brought all three lanes of traffic to a standstill. What the hell is that all about? They were all well out of the way, there was no wreck or hazard at all. Yet we all came to a screeching halt and had to gaze at the pretty lights.

I am sure everybody at the back of the traffic jam was cursing about the wait and complaining about how this was going to screw up their day right up until it was their turn to stare at the police cars, then they too had a gander. Why not after all you were already slowed down right?

I’m not sure the reason for these two phenomenon, maybe it is in our DNA, maybe it is a throw back to the days of gladiators and blood sports. All I know is it always bothers me and always will I guess.

I remember the day, 9-11, and I remember being glued to the TV as the events unfurled in front of my eyes that day, just like yours. I also remember the first image or two of people leaping from the buildings. I almost vomited. I looked away and wondered why the news would show those images.

They quickly self corrected and stopped showing those pictures. Maybe because it was live is why we had to see those horrors, maybe they didn’t realize quickly enough what exactly it was that was dropping from the buildings.

A film called the Falling Man Documentary was made about the most famous image of one of the poor people falling to their death. I watched this film not because I wanted to see it, but because it featured an in depth conversation about why we look. If you can stomach it I’d watch it, it just focuses on the one photo and the only newspaper in the entire country that ran it as a front page image and the blow back from doing that.

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One thought on “What the Hell are you Looking at?”

A motivating discussion is definitely worth comment. I do think that you should publish more on
this topic, it might not be a taboo matter but generally people
do not talk about such issues. To the next! Many thanks!
!